Additional £5.8 million announced for social housing

Finance and Government Business Minister Jane Hutt has announced an additional £5.8 million from reserves will be allocated towards social housing in 2014-15.

The new investment will support the Social Housing Grant Programme and will support the delivery of 70-90 new affordable homes.

The Finance Minister said:

“Investing in housing is a key part of our Wales Infrastructure Investment Plan and I am delighted to be able to announce an additional £5.8 million for social housing. This new investment will not only bring forward the delivery of 70 to 90 affordable homes, making a real difference to the lives of people across Wales but will act as an economic stimulus supporting growth and jobs.”

“This will add to the £5 million I announced in the autumn to support Home Improvement Loans meaning that despite the significant financial constraints placed on our budgets we will have invested an additional £10.8 million in Housing from reserves in 2014-15.”

Jane Hutt added that

“Housing is central to our preventative approach – this additional investment will benefit people’s overall quality of life and also deliver benefits to people’s health and wellbeing.”

These allocations are included in the Welsh Government’s Second Supplementary Budget for 2014-15 published today, which allows Ministers to realign budgets to meet priority areas and respond to pressures.

Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister Lesley Griffiths said:

“One of my top priorities is increasing the number of affordable homes in Wales. We’re making good progress towards our ambitious target of building 10,000 affordable homes by May 2016, having already delivered almost 7,000 homes this assembly term.

“The additional funding announced today is a welcome boost to the social housing sector in Wales and will create more good quality affordable homes for people right across the country.”

The Social Housing Grant is one of a range of measures the Welsh Government is taking to support Wales’ housing sector and increase the supply of affordable housing. This includes significant investment in the popular Help to Buy – Wales scheme which is helping first time buyers get a foot on the property ladder and the Houses into Homes programme which continues to be successful in bringing long-term empty properties back into use.